Arden

36. At Last...

36. At Last...

The harder you work for something, the greater you'll feel when you finally achieve it...

***(Long Chapter)

We walked up to the door... It was dark...old. It looked like it was about to fall off its hinges.

"You guys sure you're okay?" I asked Armani and Zane beside me.

They nodded. "I'm fine." Zane replied gruffly.

Armani rubbed her neck. "I'm okay, too." She said quietly. "I can't believe I fell for that." She whispered.

"Mani, it's okay, it's not your fault."

"Yeah, if it makes you feel better, he definitely had me fooled also." I told her.

Armani just shook her head dismissing the conversation. "You think she's in here?" She asked quietly.

"It's the only room we haven't checked." I pointed out. For a moment, we all just stood there, still looking at the door-as if we were waiting for something to happen.

After a few moments, Zane moved forward and slowly opened the door. "You guys follow me." We entered the room and I let out a harsh breathe when I saw that the room was like the rest.

"It's empty." I sighed.

"And quiet." Armani added softly.

We skimmed the room. "The bitch lied." I breathed out. Armani and I were about to storm out of the room when Zane stopped us.

"Wait." He said sharply. We followed his gaze and I froze when I saw a small coat cabinet in the corner. I almost missed it.

"Do you think.." Armani whispered.

Zane walked towards it. "Come on." We followed him over.

"Even if she's in there, we would hear her," I said lowly. "Right?"

"Only one way to find out." Zane sighed. With a shaky hand, he reached out and slowly opened it up. My whole body tensed at what I saw.

"Oh my god." Armani covered her mouth with her hand. I knew she was going to cry.

I think I was too.

In front of us, was Nikki. Shoved into the cabinet with her hands tied in front of her. There was blood covering her hands and lower parts of her arm, as if she had tried ridiculously hard to escape.

There were other bruises around her body, but what made a tear escape my eye was...her eyes.

She looked so...broken. With a piece of duct tape covering her mouth completely, tears rolled down her face as she cried silently. Hey makeup was smudged like she had been at it for hours.

There was also blood dripping down her face, as if she banned her head against the doors to get out.

She was crying silently as she saw us... Looking completely broken.

She tried to scream...it was muffled but you could still hear how loud it was. And the fear behind it.

Zane snapped out of his shock and quickly removed the tape from her mouth. "It's okay, Nikki, I got you."

Even though the tape was off, she was still crying. It honestly hurt to see her like this.

Once he had untied her, her brought her out of the cabinet, he had to hold her up...she couldn't stand.

She began to cry harder, and Zane brought her into his chest. "It's okay," He whispered shakily-somewhat still in shock.

None of us could talk. We couldn't react. The only thing we could do was listen to Nikki cry her poor heart out.